ONLY A MATTER OF TIME

Everton boss David Moyes admitted last night that the crisis-hit club simply have to bring in new faces.

Moyes saw his makeshift team humiliated 2-1 by First Division Crewe and also felt the frustration of the fans who waved banners questioning the club's direction.

The Goodison manager has taken a buffeting this summer and said: "We could do with making a signing. We're in need of four or five more players just for squad numbers.

"We're desperately low and we need some quality players to make a difference. Bill Kenwright is trying to make some cash available to get things done. We're very active on that front.

"There is only a small amount of money but we're trying to be creative."

Meanwhile the boardroom power struggle continues:

Everton's power struggle took another surprise turn last night with the resignation of the director Arthur Abercromby after 10 years on the Goodison Park board.

Earlier in the day one of the other three directors, Jon Woods, had thrown his support behind the chairman Bill Kenwright by declaring that their colleague Paul Gregg's plans for the future of the club were "impractical and unworkable".

It leaves Gregg isolated and outvoted on the current board, the same people who form True Blue Holdings, the group set up by Kenwright to oust Peter Johnson back in 2000.

Oxford-based Gregg this week drove up to Merseyside to take a hands-on involvement in the club after the resignation of the chief executive Trevor Birch.

But Kenwright now looks in a much stronger position as he struggles to stabilise a club that has axed 15 players and signed only one, Marcus Bent from Ipswich for £450,000.

Abercromby insists his decision has nothing to do with the current boardroom crisis and that it was made last season. But its announcement, with the club also desperate to persuade Wayne Rooney to stay at Goodison Park, casts a new shadow.